Bigger Brother watches our moves

It’s not surprising that business entities want to protect the privacy of their clients, but no one should expect something they post online to be a private matter.

The Daily News

It’s not surprising that business entities want to protect the privacy of their clients, but no one should expect something they post online to be a private matter.

That lesson was emphasized this past week when Facebook announced that since last summer it has been fighting a court order requiring it to disclose social-media information involving hundreds of people.

The ruling resulted in some 380 accounts being “searched” in a New York disability fraud case. According to the Associated Press, 62 people were later charged. Their Facebook posts, some of which involved photos, suggested they were indeed able-bodied men and women. The company said it was under a gag order, preventing it from discussing the case or notifying the people affected until recently.

Facebook and other online search engines maintain that the situation raises concerns over privacy in the digital age.

“This unprecedented request is by far the largest we’ve ever received — by a magnitude of more than 10 — and we have argued that it was unconstitutional from the start,” Chris Sonderby, Facebook’s deputy general counsel, wrote in a statement Thursday.

Facebook, the largest social network in the world, asserted the search was “overly broad” and allowed the government to keep the seized photos, private messages and other information indefinitely. It has called for the government to return the data and claimed the search ignored the Fourth Amendment.

The fact of the matter is there is no privacy in the digital age. What circulates in cyberspace is fair game, in as much as what takes place in open court — it’s a matter of public record.

Perhaps this throwback sense of privacy goes to our concept of the U.S. Postal Service. We still hold fast to the belief that it is a federal offense to open another person’s mail; however, it is subject to a search as well if authorities have probable cause to do so.

In the AP report, Facebook stated that from July to December 2013, it received 12,598 total requests from U.S. law enforcement, requesting information from 18,715 users or accounts. In all, some data was produced from 81 percent of the requests.

In another recent ruling, the Supreme Court rejected warrantless searches of cell phones, saying that modern cell phones are “not just another technological convenience.”

The pro and con protection-of-privacy arguments are akin to the issue of cameras on street corners. In larger metropolitan areas, some research has shown people are being recorded by cameras about 80 percent of the time they appear in public.

Do they help create safer environments or are they an invasion of privacy?

George Orwell is smiling.

A version of this editorial first appeared in The Dispatch of Lexington, N.C., a Halifax Media Group newspaper.